Category Archives: Quiet Time

Attitude is Everything

The tiger mom says, “‘A’? Why didn’t you an ‘A+’?” And perhaps you were one of those kids who was forced to attain the nonexistent grade on a nonexistent scale just for the love of a parent.

From that moment in the third grade the ever increasing demands of achievement fashioned a mentality of achieving for people so that we could be loved. We continue to build unrealistic expectations and leave real friendships in our dust.

More troublesome than that is achieving things and doing things with no purpose besides receiving another dust collecting piece of plastic for us to look under the dim, lackluster lights of our fireplace mantle.

Only until we we completely burn out and realize we hate everybody because nobody really earned our love through their anemic achievement record, do we realize life was always more meaningful when our attitude towards people was more forgiving and more accepting.

Then again, if we aren’t noticed by our achievements, we shouldn’t be noticed– a mentality only further propagated by teachers and admissions processes. I don’t know whether a parent would really stop loving their kid for being just a “B” student as opposed to an “A” student, but I do bet that we have become conditioned to this mentality of only being noticed through some type of being “somebody you are not.”

It’s culturally ingrained into us that we go and achieve so we can be lovable or redeemable. We have to “prove ourselves.” We have to “earn our stripes.” So the idioms rampantly run abuzz in our psyche, giving a foundation to all our actions.

Where we run into trouble is when this mentality of achievement and status bleeds into our faith like sacred cow. We start believing that the Christian religion requires us to have fix ourselves and do something in order to be accepted by God.

Fortunately, achievement has no part of the faith formula, but attitude toward God is more than enough.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. – Psalm 147:10-11

God doesn’t care about your past achievements. Nor does He care about what you can do in your own power. Even more than that, God doesn’t require us to achieve anything for Him to love us in the future. The reason He doesn’t care is because He can create and name each of the billions of stars in our skies at night (v4).

Our God, the God that we worship, or should be worshiping, has His own power that is so abundant that He doesn’t need our power (v5). I am by no means saying that achievement is bad. Nor am I saying that we shouldn’t work hard toward doing things that give us some type of societal approval. What I am saying is that these are not important to God, so we need to stop putting such a big premium on trying to impress God to get His attention.

Just by breathing and being where we are, we have His love and attention. Unlike a lot of the metrics and relationships we have with other people in this world, God puts His premium in the quality of His relationships.

The Psalmist says that He “delights in those who fear Him.” That doesn’t mean to tremble and be afraid of God. Fear does not mean we do things because we are afraid of punishment. Instead, the word “fear” means we are prioritizing having an actual relationship with God, for the sake of a relationship, over earning something from God. To “fear” God is to take Him seriously at His words and not to treat Him like a bedtime fairy tale.

With God, there is no give and take. We have nothing He wants or needs. He simply wants to give you and do for you because of His relationship to you. The only thing He wants from you is to take Him seriously about receiving from Him and walking with Him. But that’s hard to swallow because it’s countercultural and counterintuitive so we don’t do it and we flee from having a real relationship with the only being that will never fail us.

How sad and pitiful are we not accept such a wonderful invitation? The Psalmist writes that in our brokenheartedness, disappointments, pain and sorrows, God wants to give us more and bind up wounds torn open. He wants to do this not because we earned the right or have traded enough things to obtain bandages; but because He takes our relationship with Him seriously.

He clings to us in love and abundantly overflows our lives with power and grace out of His heart for us. Likewise, when we are humbled, because often times brokenheartedness leads to humbling, God wants to lift us up, not so that we can earn something or because we have previously achieved something, but because God’s attitude toward us is everything.

Therefore God takes delight when our attitude toward Him is to put our hope in Him; when we rely on Him for our achievement.

When we rely on God for our everything, we never have to fear failure, we never have to worry about achievement because our God’s attitude toward us is to provide and gather us up.

Realize God’s attitude toward you and gaze upon an attitude worth more than everything we ever dreamed to achieve.

Like Incense

Atheists sometimes tell me that I am wasting my breath when I pray to God. So it was weird when I was out to dinner with a bunch of self-proclaimed atheists that they would ask me to pray and bless the dinner table. It was probably a novelty ask to help remind them of their good Sunday afternoon childhood dinners back in the Midwest.

Whatever the case, I was super excited and I immediately jumped into prayer.

Later that evening, one of these guys said to me, “Yo Jon, you don’t really believe the hot air and smoke coming out of your mouth, do you?”

I said, “Bro, God loves the smell of chicken rice in my breath, it’s like incense and God is compelled to draw my closer to Him.”

I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. – Psalm 141:1-2

David writes this Psalm and says prayer, or the act of praying, is like incense. God loves the fact that we pray. It doesn’t really matter what comes out of our mouths when we pray to Him, it matters that we pray to Him and He receives it as an aromatic fragrance which covers up the unpleasant odors of everything else we have said, whether it’s blaspheming His name and cursing other people.

Prayer sets the mood for a worthy sacrifice to God. Prayer marks the beginning of our calling toward God. So often we don’t pray because we’re afraid of offending God with what we have to say. We think that just because we don’t brush our teeth, God will be offended by the smell coming out of our mouths.

There is no “right thing to say.” God wants us to hang everything out there and start everything we do and everything we feel with prayer. For God it is sweet smelling incense. He just wants you to open your mouths and allow the hot air come out.

God’s response to our prayer is always good and always received as an act of worship, whether or not we have the right words. Our prayers, because they are like incense before God, prepares the way for any and every act of worship.

Let me be a little more clear about this: we need to primer our actions before God with prayer so that God can receive all our actions as worship to Him. We often go about trying please God with things we do in His name without prayer and this is our biggest problem.

Then we hate God when we are ill received. It’s because we don’t burn our prayers to God like we would burn incense before worship. We need to open our mouths to pray to set the tone and to draw God near to us.

When we burn our prayers to God like incense, God begins to work our sacrifice. We see in the prophets that it is God who often takes the evening sacrifice by His fire. God will take whatever we lay before Him to a place where only He can take it.

This is where we need to see ourselves. When we move, when we act, when we engage in life, we need God to receive us in our actions as worthy sacrifices for Him.

If we haven’t ever laid down our prayers before God like incense, we need to earnestly start. Our actions will be received by God when we draw Him with our prayers.

It Ends Only When the Good Things Pass

“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.” – Joshua 23:14

Honestly, this part of Joshua always makes me choke up and so I fear my writing. I’m going to be morbidly candid this morning. I think about my death every single day. There is not a single day that goes by where I do not think it could be my very last.

For all the reckless and thoughtless things I do, its a living and willing testament of God’s existence and His active participation in life. In fact, I have recurring dreams on the ways I may expire without hitting all the good that God has planned for me.

The very thought terrifies my mind and heart into a manic depressive state of worthlessness. And every morning I wake up and fight those thoughts, because it just means that God ain’t done with me yet, there are more good things promised that need to pass. However, death is definitely coming for me and so I hope everything good that happens is not the last; and everything bad, I hope is not my undoing. God ain’t done with you either.

God is only done when “all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you” comes to fruition. This is where things become tricky. Our problem has always been that we can’t be certain of the good things God promised us because we don’t know the good things God promises us for our lives.

So unless we know these promises, hitting a funk in your life doesn’t mean that God is done with you and that you should give up on life. Absolutely not. In fact, it should just be an indicator to you that it may be time to reexamine what good things are yet to come.

Joshua orates a history of nation of Israel to help people understand their present. More specifically, the why and where they are going as a result of their history. He says you don’t need to worry about the “how” because that’s God’s to take care of. His oration hints us in on the good things that have come to pass and does not forget the bad things we brought on ourselves. It provides rhyme and reason to why and where they stand before God’s plans for their lives. It gives us a clue on how we should be examining our lives.

If you can’t quite see why you are at the very place and moment of history you are in, then all you have to do us look at your legacy and the opportunities/hardships that have been afforded to you. Everything in your life culminates into a vision of the good things God promises you here and now.

Even if you only remember the bad, hurt, scars and pain of life because, as far as you can see, those are the only things given to you, I promise there is redemption to be found in it. The Israelites didn’t just spend two generations in the wilderness for nothing. But it means nothing if they can’t see the good things that God wants to make come to pass– it was about setting up their inheritance.

What are the good things yet to come from God in your life (what is God’s vision for you)? If you don’t know, then you can’t be where you need to be and you need to start asking and reflecting. God does not fail, nor is He a liar. Your life will have good things come to pass.

This is not some wishful and esoteric theological banter. This is truth that cannot be denied. But you have to be able to envision it, otherwise it will just pass you by without you realizing it.

For some of us the good things may be to raise a family; for others it may mean influential careers; yet for others it may mean reaching the needy and destitute; and for the people who remain, it may be to help others see good things pass.

Whatever it is, we need to pray for it and ask to be shown the good things coming to pass in our life times. It only ends when the good things of God come to pass.

So it ain’t over for you yet.

Idols to Ourselves

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. – Acts 14:14-15 Imagine this scene: first century AD and two dudes come into your town and command a cripple person you knew your entire life to get up and walk. Then the person actually gets up and begins to walk. What would you do? That’s right, you would become their groupie! Some of you may admire them, others would respect them, yet still others would idolize them so that one day they can be like them. The bottom line is that we would want to give them credit for what they did. But instead, what happens is that the people of this city call them gods and begin to worship Paul and Barnabas. The priest of Zeus even brings a cow to sacrifice before them! It’s crazy, right? But then again, it’s not THAT crazy. Just think about the deal you brokered for your company just last week and how many people at your company bought you Martinis to pour down your throat as a result. What about the orphans you provided presents to for Christmas? Didn’t the orphans make you feel like ole St Nick? How about when you paid for your family vacation that one time? I bet your parents are still bragging about it to their friends. I got it, what about that church you built from scratch with the six hundred non-committal members that will bleed for the gospel in a war torn, third world country but can’t find the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. For all these things that you do, don’t you receive praise? Don’t you become rewarded for your valor or courage? Even your vision and leadership, if not your cunning and nimbleness? We easily lose grip on the reality of how we got to where we are when we’re thrown a little praise from people. When honestly assess our “accomplishments,” we’ll probably realize the fact that we personally accomplished very little, despite the amount of toil we suffered through to get there. In fact, we probably realized that there was more “luck” (unexplainable coincidences) and good circumstances that we happened to arrive at in the perfect moment than anything else. Nonetheless, we take the credit because we were there and people are pointing at us, and even our humble modesty points to our own ability. We then begin to believe that and become idols to ourselves, using our past “achievements” as a benchmark for future potential and present pride. When we become idols to ourselves, our next achievement must be greater than our last, we have to be better than the next person and there is faint cry to become godlike in person. This isn’t real, nor is it remotely possible. We have to constantly be aware of how we see ourselves, our work, and our achievements because it can lead us to make ourselves idols. Life becomes unsustainable when we are own idols. We’d be burned out or burning out. We never live up to the hype or the glory. We would never meet our own expectations, we would never be satisfied and our results would feign in comparison to the work God can do with His pinky; but we won’t get any chance to experience what it is He does if we’re busy worshipping ourselves. Paul and Barnabas only happened to be where God was moving and pointed it out. They could have easily taken credit of what happened– they would have been worshipped as gods in that city. Instead they “tore their clothes” and pointed out their imperfections and their ungodliness so they wouldn’t become idols to the people or to themselves. They knew what had happened could not be replicated on their own. They weren’t sold on themselves. Let’s pray that we don’t become idols to ourselves, but instead, worship God for what He does for us in our lives.

Giving/Finding Directions

A few days ago I was at Macy’s trying to find suitable replacements to three of my very tattered and unwearable slacks (it wasn’t a good pants week for me). So obviously I don’t do this often, nor should I be allowed to go on my own to a clothing store– mostly out of fear of what my style and fashion may havoc. But all of us have to grow up some time. I’m thinking I look incredibly lost or at least I look beyond bewildered because the next thing I know, I have two personal shoppers from the Macy’s men’s clothing department standing next to me, telling me what to try on. Luckily for them, I like obnoxiously uncomfortable scenes and so I humored them, heeding their advice on what brand does what according to size and what effect inseams have on the way it makes legs elongate and etc, etc. I didn’t learn much. But nonetheless, they provided guidance to a fashion challenged individual. I share this story, not to make you red with jealousy about how I allowed two impersonal shoppers choose my pants, but to mark out what an opportunity to God’s work may look like. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” – Acts 8:29-30 A lot of us have a hard time discerning God’s Will for our lives. But that’s understandable because a vision from God is like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. It can be a lifetime and then you feel like maybe you’re only at the beginning. Even more problematic than that is our inability to find the right puzzle pieces, that is God’s opportunities, to fit together on any given day. In this chapter of Acts we find the disciple Philip, who is led by God to His opportunities time and time again. It seems so easy too. I mean, God’s Spirit simply tells him. If God’s Spirit simply vocalized what we need to do, life would be much easier. It would be way easier than the minutiae we have to wade through now; so how do we even apply this? God says “go” and so Philip “goes.” God doesn’t say why, Philip is just told to go. Then, as Philip is in the situation, he perceives the need– the dude is reading Scripture but doesn’t know what it means. The salespeople at Macy’s hawked on me the same way, they saw me make perplexed faces at the pants. I’m looking at the clothes (two black slacks) and I can’t decipher what the dimension tags mean! God’s opportunity for us is plainly out there, we just can’t see the simplicity of it. In perceiving the “need,” Philip fulfills it in asking the eunuch if he wants it explained. God’s will for us daily is simply finding and giving directions to people on their journeys. We all have something to offer. We have an unique perspective that only we can bring into somebody’s life– that is a God given gift! You also have a circle of people in your life and then there are constantly people coming in and out of your lives whose needs go unmet daily. This is God’s calling/vision for you right now– to fill the need of people requiring your unique perspective and input. A lot of us will rather pass that up because our two cents is none of their business, but really that’s just overtly selfish. The same way you have people speak into your life, make sure you are speaking into theirs or at least into the lives of people around you right now. This is God’s Will for you and there’s no question about it. Be bold and dare to ask somebody how you can speak into their lives. You’ll be more than surprised by what you have to offer.

Only Be Strong and Courageous

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9 Being strong and courageous is a command from God. God commands this because this what we need to be to “inherit” what God envisioned for our lives before we were even an afterthought in our parents’ minds. Being and strong and courageous allows us to step into our sweet spot, the place where we make the most difference, where we have the most influence. We hit our sweet spot because God goes with us to wherever he leads us. When God is with us, there is no reason to fear and there is definitively no reason to become flustered or saddened. Jesus was strong and courageous when in his innocence, carried the burden of a guilty man’s cross to Calvary. It was by being strong enough to endure the death unbefitting of God that we saw courage to to take a risk on people who may not even love him in return. I know what you are thinking right now: how do I become strong and courageous because those two qualities are not innate within me. I totally know what you mean. To understand how we can become strong and courageous in a very practical way, we need to examine verse 7 in this chapter. It says, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.” If you don’t want to read the Book of Deuteronomy (the law of Moses) then we can go to what Jesus says to the lawyers in Matthew, Mark and Luke as the summary of the “law of Moses”, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” You are strong when openly and ardently love God, who provides for you. You openly and ardently love God when you honor Him, that is, when you start looking at the world from His perspective by being transformed and having the presence of God with you in prayer, making your body a temple, a living sacrifice. You are courageous when you come out of your self-centeredness and love somebody in a way you would love yourself in your self-centeredness. Simply put, what would happen if you started to give and do to other people that which you would do and give to yourself? I’m not talking about charity, I’m talking about treating other people how you would treat yourself. Going back to verse 7, the writer continues to say about loving God and loving your neighbor, “do not turn from it.” We make so many exceptions to doing these two things in our lives. For example, we pick and choose when God is convenient for us and love Him in worship when we have nothing better to do or when we are in trouble. Or we hold back our love for God before some of our non-Christian friends because we fear alienating them with “our religion” and so we alienate God because He will understand. In this way, we turn from loving God strongly and courageously. Then there is the issue of making exceptions to which neighbors we love plainly because we don’t “like” them. This is another example of turning from the Law of Moses. This morning I want to encourage you to be strong and courageous by following the law of Moses– that is of Christ. I want you to set aside your fear, your disappointment, and your anxiety because you are in the presence of God who is traveling with you, directing you to your sweet spot. God will not leave you or forsake you and that is a promise, so be strong and courageous. I pray this morning that we can be strong and courageous so that we can receive what God sets apart for us. I pray that we can meditate on God’s laws and be strong and courageous enough not to turn from it. Another quiet time will be available later this afternoon, keep your eyes open.

Don’t Be Afraid to Drown

I remember the first time I learned how to swim. It was about twenty some odd years ago at Virginia Beach and my pops threw me into the deep end of the pool and said, “move your arms and kick your legs and come in this direction.” For some reason, I was able to muster enough flapping to tread water and make it to where I needed to go. I’m writing this Quiet Time now so I’m glad it turned out alright. But I just can’t stop thinking what would have happened if I were too afraid to drown and was too petrified to swim? Would I have been able swim if I didn’t know that my dad was there with me? Maybe. However, the one thing that can’t be denied is that knowing my dad was there provided enough confidence within me to actually swim. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. – Ezekiel 47:5 Ezekiel, in this passage, is being shown the multiple levels of blessings and favors that flow from God. Essentially there are four levels of blessing and you only receive the level of blessing you are willing to step into. The metaphor here being water as the outpouring of blessings. The lowest level of blessing from God is ankle-deep. You can compare this type of blessing as just getting your feet wet. It is a marginal type of blessing. You will feel God’s presence when your feet are dipped in the water, but you begin to move around and you lose God’s blessing because you’ve taken your foot out of the blessing. Then there is the second level of blessing which comes up knee deep. You can compare this to the first level in that, you can still come out of God’s blessing if you step tall enough. But at the same time, you feel more of his blessing when you are legs are in the water. This is a safe type of blessing because you can still touch the floor and you are relatively free to move about– it’s like being a grown up hanging out in the kiddie pool. The third level of blessing is waist deep. You feel comfortable receiving God’s blessing as long as it only comes waist deep. Again, here you’re still playing on the children’s side of the pool. There is no danger here. You are still in full control of how God’s blessing takes you or doesn’t take you and that’s because the water is only waist deep. At the same time, you’re only getting half the blessings of God on your life. However, you’re probably okay with that because you’re in deep enough to witness God’s power in His blessing and you’re willing to receive some of it, just not all of it. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of us will stay because we feel comfortable with this level of God’s intervention into our lives. I understand why, it’s because you’re not ready to put our whole body in the water of blessing. The fourth level of blessing is where the blessings from God begin to overwhelm a person. It is here where God’s blessings overtake our ability to “play it safe” and allow us to learn to swim in the riches of His blessings. When Ezekiel says this blessing is like “a river that could not be passed through,” he is saying that you can’t touch the floor in this blessing. It completely and consummately submerges your life within it– you can only swim in it. This is the type of blessing that God wants us to jump into. The problem is that we are too afraid of drowning in God’s blessing and losing ourselves. It’s our inability to commit which keeps us from jumping into God’s blessing. Thus, we away discount ourselves from this level of blessing. Self-sabotage is really sad. This morning I pray wherever you are in blessing that you can jump into the deep end of blessings and swim in it. Don’t be afraid to drown in it. Your heavenly Father is there and He has confidence in your ability to swim in His blessings.

Appropriateness

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. – Matthew 7:6 This is probably the most sensible thing Jesus said in his sermon on the mount. Not that it’s easy to accomplish practically, but by far the easiest of the things he said logically. That is only because everything else Jesus said was so countercultural to what we learned about life and power in this life. However I digress. So dogs and pigs are affectionately symbols of men, at least they are to the majority of women who have been victim to the animal-like behavior of men, and we all know this. If you’re man, you can feel comfortable and safe enough to admit you know you sometimes act like stupid dogs, and your room, according to your mom or sister, looks like a pigpen. People in general despite all their creativity and mental prowess can act like animals. Am I right? We sometimes don’t show mercy to others. At best, we decide to settle out of court as opposed to suing outright. We almost never show gratitude because nothing is ever on par with our expectations. We can’t admire beauty so we knock it down and build a characterless strip mall. Are these not true? Let’s ask ourselves, how forgiving were we the last time somebody crossed us like a black cat underneath a ladder? If memory serves me right, you’re still not on speaking terms! I mean, sure you’ll “like” Facebook posts but you won’t dare leave a comment. I mean you’re still complaining about how the waiter at the restaurant brought you a bottle of Poland Spring as opposed to Aquafina. Shall I continue? I shall. I want you to think about what you did with that watch your grandfather gave you. Do you even have it? What about your mother’s ring that was passed down for 14 generations, where’s that at? Let’s scale it down to a lessor degree, are you using your iPhone to protect you from the elements? Was it me, or did you just throw that cell phone, your parents bought you into the wall because their conversation with you, once a month mind you, disturbed your so called inner peace? All of this boils down to appropriateness. God ain’t a fool. Just because you ask God for a Maserati, doesn’t mean He’s going to give it to you. It’s especially true if you can’t handle the pinto. Some of you tell me that when you pray, you receive nothing from God. I tell you that you receive His hearing you out, but you can’t receive His things if you’re going to act like dogs and pigs because animals don’t understand what to do with people things, let alone, God things. God’s things are not only holy, but they’re also valuable. Next time you ask God, because you you know He gives, ask yourself: am I human enough to receive or just a dog and a pig. Then reflect on, with somber judgement, without logs in your eyes whether you shall be able to find God’s gift in your search for it. I pray that we appropriately understand the gifts God wants to bestow on us.

Courage Under Fire

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. – James 1:12 What is courage under fire? It is having the steady resolve to face your challenges, difficulties and opposition with a faith so strong that cannot be broken. If we read this passage in context, we will see the most courageous act we can embody in the midst of fire is the act of standing up against our own desires and personal wishes. James says that the the trial is facing that which we ourselves entice into being. Here’s the one thing we have to understand about that though– “courage” is not something you are born with and not innately given. It is something we work up towards. That means even if there are times when we fail, we shouldn’t give up on standing tough in the midst of our trials. In verse 18 James writes, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” God, knowing you can’t ever courageously stand up to your own desires, gives you Jesus’ blood and the presence of the Holy Spirit to persevere so that you can receive the “promise of God.” So today I want you to move forward in facing your trials and doing exactly what you know needs to be done to overcome your temptations, oppositions and difficulties knowing fully well that God brings us out in His own will to be victors for the sake of His glory. Therefore, whatever it is that you are facing in the present, know that you have already received the victory in Jesus, your Christ. You have courage and when it is under fire, you will remain steadfast in facing it and overcoming it. This is something we need to pray about and believe together because this is our source of hope and strength. Be courageous.

Pain Can Be a Good Thing

I think back to the last time I was stabbed in the back… not literally of course, but figuratively. That pain sent me sideways and to the left, doing somersaults over pins and needles and left me in so much anguish that I gave myself pain. Betrayal like this is painful. It shatters your worldview and makes you re-evaluate every relationship you have with everybody you know. It forces you to take account of who you can trust and who you can expect to stab you next. It painfully changes your perceptions of people and cut ties with people who you never believed would pain you. Despite all of that, pain can be a good thing.

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. – Psalm 119:50

Pain is a bad thing when you don’t have hope to carry you through the pain to a place when pain will no longer hurt. The good thing about pain is God’s promise of life through the pain. It is hope to carry you through the painfully trying times. This doesn’t come from thin air. Absolutely not! Let’s look at verse 71 where the Psalmist writes, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Painfully trying experiences can be leveraged as an opportunity to experience God through the Bible in a way like never before. Not many of us do that though. Instead we drink our pain into a stupor or lull the pain through food into a coma. Some of us even circumvent dealing with our pain by pretending it doesn’t hurt. What we should be doing in these times is digging deeper into God’s “statutes” — that is searching for the very reasons why Jesus Christ would come into the affliction of humanity to redeem us. If you’re in pain right now, you need to say to God, “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word!” (v107). It’s in the Bible! The promise of new life amidst the pain and suffering. The favor of God which exists only for us who are in pain is the hope we need to receive justice through God in our lives. In our pain, let us worship God even more so that we can receive a good thing– a hope for us who are hopelessly in pain. Let us be the comfort and companion for those who are in pain. Let God light the paths of our feet. Let passion for God’s word fill every emotion and anchor our hearts with a renewed life. Pain can be a good thing, but only if we allow God’s Word fill our hearts and open our eyes. Let’s pray that the pain in your life can be used to find God’s good thing for our lives.